nbaculture

Getting tired of shoes yet?  Yea, neither am I.  I’ve got a video to go with this one, the Nike Air Zoom Huarache 2k4:

Interesting fact, these shoes were set to be Kobe Bryant’s first signature shoe with Nike, but they decided to hold off on them because of that whole Colorado rape thing that was going on at the time; a period of time in which everyone dropped him from their labels- pretty damn quickly I might add.  I personally don’t think these shoes are the most stylish (although others would vehemontly disagree with me), I tried them on and I have to say, they are damn comfortable.  A decent weight, nice traction, good ankle support, and performed well.   If only I knew how to pronounce the damn things.  It far outperformed most the shoes I’ve worn, and was extremely popular among casual basketball players as well as professionals, so I add it to my list.

Today’s entry is the Nike Air Force 1:

Introduced in 1982, these bad boys still sell like hot cakes.  They come in a host of varieties nowadays, and are easily one of the most recognizable nike shoes out there.  If they’re good enough for Rasheed Wallace, they’re good enough for me.

Honorable Mention:

I’ve been sitting on these shoes (not literally) for quite some time now, contemplating whether or not to include them.  After thinking long and hard, I just couldn’t ignore them so I had to at least mention them.  The Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars.

They are basketball classic, but have become transcended the basketball genre to become fashion icons.  True, many people wear basketball shoes to just walk around and be fashionable, but those people usually still play basketball with them.  The Chucks have moved into other stylistic genres, and have been famous in many punk rock circles.  Still, they started out as BBall shoes, so I enter it in my list of greatest bball shoes of all time.  Plus, with technology growing the ankle support on these shoes doesn’t really live up to par with the wear and tear of avid basketball players.

Today is a 2-for-1, because I will feature two shoes in today’s post.  Exciting isn’t it?  Well, not really, but the reason I do this is because they are both Air Jordans, and I really don’t want to fill this list of greatest shoes with a bunch of Air Jordans, so out of the 14 Jordan shoes that came out (during his playing career, as a Chicago Bull), I will only post 3.  Presenting the first of 2 shoes, the Air Jordan XI:

I posted 2 pictures, because I wanted to show the iconic black and red, but my personal favorite is the white and black.  These shoes are arguably the most popular Air Jordans to date, and marked his comeback from baseball and his 4th NBA title.  Remember him sporting that number 45 jersey and knocking on the hardwood floor?  All in those remarkable shoes.  These shoes ran him and the bulls to a record setting 72-10 season, culminating in an emotional championship over the Supersonics on father’s day.  After its release, it was re-released 5 years later due to popularity, coming in all different colors and stuff.  Great shoe, some people would say the greatest Jordan shoe.

Next in our lineup of Jordan shoes is the Air Jordan XIII:

It was an instant classic when it came out, and sales were strong despite it being a stiff $150 buy.  It featured a sleek pop tart design, great colors, and a holographic Jordan by the ankle support.  It was also one of the highest performing Jordan shoe; light, durable, with great cushions for great comfort.  Jordan wore these in his last season as a Chicago Bull, though he was showing off the Jordan XIVs during the finals; but nobody really noticed because all they remember is that little tap to Bryon Russell for that poster shot dubbed “the last shot”, although he made a comeback as a Washington Wizard.

That’s it for the Jordans…  I’m DONE.

Remember little penny?  Sure you do…  He was voiced by Chris Rock!

And now, I present to you, the Air Penny II by Nike:

Air Penny > Air Zoom (Lebron)…  I’ll take these bad boys over most the current shoes available.  The Orlando Magic were rolling, Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway was an All-Star, and Chris Rock voiced his counterpart.  Along with the Jordans, these were the shoes to have; it even outsold the Air Jordan XIIs.  More comfortable than most at the time, superbly stylish, and great performance to boot, the Penny’s remain a fan favorite today, and any bball shoe list or shoe collection would be pititful without these suckers in there.

For me, this is undeniably Reebok’s greatest basketball shoe ever (including the pump, which is pretty cool actually).  This is the reason I couldn’t have the GP I, because I had already bought a pair of shoes at the time and I chose the Reebok Question, Allen Iverson’s shoe.

This shoe was cool as hell, had a great design, and came in low top and mid top.   Much better (in my opinion) than Iverson’s Answer series, the Question is still Reebok’s best selling basketball shoe.

My favorite shoe that I never had, introducing the Nike GP I:

(Picture couresy of ajordanxi from the www.solecollector.com forum )  Ok, these were not the most popular, and the later remakes from GP II through the GP IV were god-awful, but man did I want these shoes.  They had a snap system featuring a locking lace cover that actually worked, great ankle support, and snug as a bug.  Though a little beefy, it was stylish and performed great.  This shoe doesn’t break many people’s top ten, but I had to put it in as the shoe that got away.

I was looking at my shoes with contempt, when I wondered to myself where all the good shoes have gone.  So, after day dreaming nostalgically for a few minutes, I was inspired to talk briefly about all the greatest basketball shoes of all time.  Here’s the first entry in my series, and you have to start with the one that started it all:

The Air Jordan I, brought to you by the fine people at Nike.  You have to love the shoe, and hate it (yes, hate) at the same time.  This shoe made basketball shoes popular, and was even banned in the NBA.  Of course Jordan just paid the fine every game he played with them, so the NBA eventually dropped that rule.  Everybody and their mother’s wanted this shoe, and it was like a status symbol on the playground.  If you wore them, they made you look like a better player, and if you lost in them, at least you lost in style.  Probably the shoe with one of the highest theft rate, you might get jumped just for your shoes.  Now, here’s why you gotta hate them:  Shoes now cost over $100, and some of the more recent jordans rose up to $200 when they came out.  Who knew you could charge $150 for some shoes??  Apparently, Nike found a way.